RALEIGH, N.C. – Back in the surprise swing state of North Carolina, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said Wednesday his campaign is “six days away from changing America.”

The Illinois senator told thousands of supporters in downtown Raleigh that the campaign will soon turn the page on Republican policies, such as those held by rival candidate John McCain. He urged people to vote early and he said there was no time to rest in North Carolina given the close election.

“In six days you can give this country the change it needs,” he said.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll released Wednesday shows Obama and McCain about even in North Carolina with a week before Election Day.

Obama’s rally at Halifax Mall drew an estimated 25,000 supporters who crowded into the grassy gathering spot in the middle of North Carolina’s government complex.

Both candidates are pressing hard to win the state’s 15 electoral votes. Obama’s visit was his seventh to the state. His wife Michelle is campaigning in Rocky Mount and Fayetteville, where McCain held a rally Tuesday.

North Carolina hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976. But changing demographics, a swath of new voters and a large bloc of blacks have helped push Obama to the brink of victory here.

Limous Brown, 78, said he came to the event early because he wanted to see the first black president of the United States. He said that in 1936, his grandfather told him there will one day be a black president, but he laughed at the idea.

“I’ve been waiting 78 years for this,” said Brown, a retired grocer. “I can’t hardly take it.”